Note: This is meant to be used with Gimp 2.8.x - There are dependencies from regular Gimp used by 2.9.9

This works for me in Kubuntu 16.04 64bit.
It should work in other 16.x 64bit 'buntus. It might work in 14.x 'buntu
It might even work in equivalent version of Mint.
A long shot possibility in other Debian based versions.

Nothing clever, it is assembled using a script and the 'buntu 'gimp-edge' ppa. This updates regularly and I will attempt to keep the following to the current build.

edit: updated 25 December 2017Due to updates to GEGL this is only for versions of Ubuntu 16.04 / Mint 18 and later + derivatives
More dependency hell with Ubuntu 18.x versions. This Gimp 2.9.9 appimage is stuck with this release which is Dec 2017
Still very usable, no recent feature additions, just bug fixes

Unzip and run. It will run from your home partition. Same as a regular gimp, first run it creates a gimp profile, in this case ~/.config/GIMP/2.9 It will copy all your resources from ~/.gimp-2.8 so to save a lot of editing, temporarily rename ~/.gimp-2.8 and a new empty Gimp 2.9 profile is created.

First run looks like this.

[attachment=166]

I am not keen on those dark themes, so this is my preference + a shot of one nice addition to Gimp 2.9 - new layer options. Plenty other new things to explore.

Bugs
This is a development version, there will be bugs.
If Gimp 2.9.9 - any version - crashes a lot, first thing to check is
Edit -> Preferences -> System Resources -> Number-of-Threads-to-use Set this to 1

Final word - absolutely no guarantees Any feedback will be welcome. It might only work on my computer, in which case I will scrap the thread.

Terrifically useful. Thanks. I'm a huge fan of 2.9.x, as I can finally work in ProPhotoRGB. I updated to 16.04 from 14.04, and cannot get 2.9.x to work correctly. Your compiled version works fine. Excellent and appreciated.

That is correct, annoying isn't it. Open a terminal where the GIMP297.bin file is and run it with a dot-slash

Code:

./GIMP297.bin --pdb-compat-mode=on

If it works you can make a .desktop file to launch it.

The last version .appimage posted at pixls.us was gimp-2.9.7-20170829... which is very up-to-date.

Bit of a monster at 190 MB but will be more 'universal' than my appimage which is assembled from the 'buntu ppa. That 2.9.7 is currently 8 days old, guessing there will be an update soon. I do try and keep things up-to-date but if I find any major bugs (and there have been a few) update is postponed.

I have tried it in Mint 18 and AntiX VM's & seems to work ok.. My PClinuxOS rpm based distro - big fail, not a surprise.

There are differences, I believe in more hands-on, so no 'extra' plugins added. There are a few files added, example for SVG support.

The Gimp profile is the more standard ~.config/GIMP/2.9/

It is really meant to used as well as Gimp 2.8.x which pulls in some needed dependencies, main one, python-gtk packages.

Thanks for the info. They seemed to have updated Gimp at pixls.us but left the link name at 2.9.5
The plug-ins don't appear to work in the pixls.us version but they do in your version. Why in the world is this the case? My Felimage plugin works great also, but not on the pixls.us version. Strange . . .

(09-02-2017, 11:28 AM)mholder Wrote: Thanks for the info. They seemed to have updated Gimp at pixls.us but left the link name at 2.9.5
The plug-ins don't appear to work in the pixls.us version but they do in your version. Why in the world is this the case? My Felimage plugin works great also, but not on the pixls.us version. Strange . . .

Carmelo always says that you can not add plug-ins. So you will have to ask. It will be the environment and libraries they are compiled against, although Gimp plugins are usually very forgiving.

It does indeed throw up plenty of error messages for my plugins

gmic-gimp-qt for example is compiled against the 'buntu gimp 2.9.7 libraries but FFT is bog-standard - should work but does not.
There is that small collection I zipped in the first post, but generally I find most python plugins work, some of the older compiled ones can fail.

~/.config/GIMP $ ./GIMP297.bin --pdb-compat-mode=on
This is a development version of GIMP. Debug messages may appear here.

Missing fast-path babl conversion detected, Implementing missing babl fast paths
accelerates GEGL, GIMP and other software using babl, warnings are printed on
first occurance of formats used where a conversion has to be synthesized
programmatically by babl based on format description

~/.config/GIMP $ ./GIMP297.bin --pdb-compat-mode=on
This is a development version of GIMP. Debug messages may appear here.

Missing fast-path babl conversion detected, Implementing missing babl fast paths
accelerates GEGL, GIMP and other software using babl, warnings are printed on
first occurance of formats used where a conversion has to be synthesized
programmatically by babl based on format description